It's been well known for a LONG time that the Russian program is MARKEDLY different from our own... and it's a totally different mindset...
For instance, I was reading in "Dragonfly" about the Shuttle/Mir program-- when the first NASA personnel went over to Russia to start working hand-in-glove with them on the Shuttle/Mir program and working toward integrating their contributions with ours on the ISS program, they were frankly shocked at what they saw... when they toured Russian "mission control" outside Moscow, they were shocked at how decrepit and run down the buildings and equipment was... and mission control was full of cats, walking along the consoles and running around the floors... when someone asked what all the cats were doing in mission control, one of the Russians replied deadpan "how else are you going to keep the mice under control?"
The Russian quality control system is basically nonexistant by our standards... of course that's part of the reason Russian launches and launch vehicles are a FRACTION of the cost of US launches/vehicles, as well. They have testing programs, to be sure, but they are largely considered 'substandard' by the US way of doing things... test procedures are murky and often changed or not followed precisely, making the conclusions suspect... inspection of work is neglected to a huge degree... that's why N-1 blew up from ingesting a bolt or nut left in the propellant duct, and how this past spring's Progress launch ended up crashing in the Altai mountains after ingesting a rag left in the lines, shutting the engine down. it's why an ICBM fired off its second stage on the pad and then blew up, killing 150-odd technicians and officials, including General Nedelin... and why a Proton with an LK lunar Soyuz on top partially collapsed due to a third (or fourth) stage tanking failure and leaned the Soyuz over against the gantry, which managed to hold it up until the rocket was detanked of propellants and the vehicle stabilized and the Soyuz removed... It's why a Soyuz started to lift off from Baikonur, ignited its engines but never throttled them up, and then fired off the escape tower before the rocket blew sky high... it's why a Progress was brought in by an exhausted crew using procedures they hadn't practiced in months with unfamiliar equipment under remote control, in a test of the "emergency mode" instead of via regular old KURS automated docking like the Russians have been doing since 1967, and ends up careening in at high speed and crashing into the Mir space station and puncturing one of its modules...
It's the reason that Gene Kranz was forced into retirement after he repeatedly warned that the Shuttle/Mir and ISS programs were more trouble than they were worth, and there would be a lot of problems with the reliability and working together with the Russians... Which has pretty much all proven true, but was politically incorrect, so out he went!
Don't get me wrong... the Russians do a lot of stuff right... the fact that they are still capable of flying not only thier own men but ours as well into space at any time, while the US sits on the ground, having retired its only operational yet hugely expensive and fragile manned space vehicle with no replacement in sight, mired in political infighting and contractor machinations over whatever NASA funding they can acquire... it's a testament to their skill and talents and brilliance... to their choices as well, as they're basically flying the same booster that has been flying since 1957, and the same capsule that's been flying since 1967, both of which have been progressively and steadily upgraded over time into an efficient space launch vehicle system. We could learn a lesson or two in this regard, since at present the US's only official "plan" is to spend $30 billion dollars and a decade to convert the shuttle boosters and External Tank and shuttle engines into a new inline core vehicle with a thrust structure and five segment SRB's... and to launch a manned capsule that's been being worked on for about 7-8 years now, and won't even fly a test flight for another 2 years... and won't fly operationally for another 8 at the earliest... rather pathetic IMHO... and all this to build a vehicle with no real missions yet scheduled, let alone designed or approved and funded... just nebulous "talk"...
SO, lets really look at the bigger picture when we start knocking the Russians... after all, those who live in glass houses aught not to throw stones...
later! OL JR
